There was no way someone would have picked this night of all nights. Someone must have known, someone was watching him. Fuck, where’s a Mekhet when you need one. Jack couldn’t have gone far, he had only one possible route to walk, and he could glance down the alley of each as he ran by, but it was a long shot. Whoever was in his domain could have just taken Jack and run, or pulled him into the sewers, or worse.
Rage built inside him. Whoever it was, he was going to tear them apart. He was going to sink his fingers into their limbs and rip them out of their sockets. You do not just walk into someone’s domain without permission, and there was no way this was done by accident, especially not on this night.
Finally, he could smell his friend. Jackpot. He had only to glance down an alley to see the coat of a woman, and the falling body of a boy. Oh god, if he was too late.
“Get away from him!”
The woman pulled away with a jolt. She gave him a glance, only one, before she turned and ran. She was like liquid. Her motions were beyond fluid and her speed was beyond his grasp. Daeva bitch. It had to be. She must have drawn Jack in and… and….
“Jack! Shit, Jack!” Julias got to his knees and looked down over his little friend. “Fucking hell Jack, can you hear me?”
The small man coughed up blood, curled up on his side, and splattered some of it onto the street. He was always tiny, but now he looked like a spec against the dirty asphalt. Just a kid with a buzzed head in a bad suit, bleeding everywhere.
“I… I just got stabbed, didn’t I?” Blood was seeping out of where Jack kept his hands to his stomach. Julias fought to keep his eyes from staring at the growing pool. He would kill that Daeva with his bare fucking hands, with his teeth! No, not now, he had to focus.
“Move your hands, I have to see.” Julias wrapped his grip around his friend’s hands and pulled them away. Jack fought against him, groaned and moaned in pain, but Julias’s strength easily overpowered him. “Hold still! I have to see how bad it is.”
His hands gripped into Jack’s suit and shirt and lifted it. His desperation even ripped it, but then, it was a cheap suit. He’d really have to buy Jack a nice suit after this.
“Ok, I’m seeing… ten holes. Fuck that Daeva bitch! Shit shit shit.” He let Jack curl back up into a ball as he stood up. Panic-filled eyes looked around from deep within the alley. It would take only a second to get Jack out into the street, and maybe ten minutes to get him into a hospital. What good would that do? He’d been stabbed ten times.
“I… I’m not a doctor, but I think….” The little guy coughed up some blood between words. “I think… I’m dead.”
“What the fuck Jack, how can you… you’re dying!” Julias pulled Jack up to sit against the alley wall.
“I guess I’m just… intellectualizing? I’m sure… it’ll hit me… later… when I’m dead.” Being sat up brought a new fit of coughs, and Jack clutched at his stomach hard. Julias could see it wasn’t only from pain, the kid was actually just trying to keep his guts from spilling.
“Well stop intellectualizing! God damn it Jack, I… shit this is my fault.”
“… wha-”
“That Deava cunt! She did this to you to get at me, to stop me. To… hurt me.”
“Daeva, I don’t un-” Another coughing fit cut Jack off, and he stopped trying to talk. Instead, his draining eyes looked up to Julias. The little guy’s face was getting very white.
“Jack, I… fuck it. Jack, I’m going to help you.”
“You… look at me.” Jack pulled his hands away from his stomach, which let loose another pool of blood to spill over his fingers. “I’m dead Julias, just… take me to the hospital, so… mom can get me after.”
What the fuck was wrong with this kid? He was dying, he would be dead in minutes, the amount of blood pouring out of him was insane. And yet he was just accepting it. His last moments would be spent just happily giving in? No.
“No, fuck that, fuck that ‘quietly into the good night’ shit you stupid bastard.”
“But… you can’t-”
Blood stains really are a bitch.
“Yes I can… yes I fucking can.” Julias reached down and pulled Jack up into his arms. The tiny guy was weightless. He took him deeper into the alleyway, and then, jumped.
“Holy….” Little Jack tried to yell, even flail a little, but the small man was exhausted and shivering. Good. It made carrying him up the side of the building easier. Julias jumped the fire escape railing, and then onto the railing of another, and another still, until ten floors were scaled in a matter of seconds. He landed on the rooftop, where only darkness and moonlight waited.
“How did-”
“Do you trust me?”
“Julias, I-”
“Do you trust me?” Julias yelled this time as he sat down. He put Jack down between his legs with his back to his own stomach. He cradled the small guy in a hug, and rocked him back and forth. He was getting cold.
“… yes.”
“Then just relax. Just relax and take a breath.”
“I don’t…” His words trailed of when Julias sank his teeth into Jack’s neck.
Julias knew the reaction. He knew it well. It was always the same. First, his prey would twitch for just a second while his bite first punctured and then numbed the area. And then, they would simply relax into the Kiss. Jack relaxed far too quickly, far too easily, and the blood that flowed into Julias’s mouth was slow and lacked volume.
“What… are you….” Jack shivered a couple times, trembled, went limp against Julias’s chest. His heartbeat grew slower, and slower, but Julias kept drinking.
How long had it been since he’d drunk someone dry? Years. But his friend? How long had it been since he’d done this? A lifetime.
“I’m… getting… tired.” The poor little guy couldn’t even lift his arms anymore. He could barely talk. At least Julias was making the loss of blood feel good, right? He could feel it in Jack’s body. He wasn’t struggling, and he was probably high on the pleasure of it. But then, he probably thought he was dying and that his pleasurable feelings were his body’s chemical responses to death. Well, he was half right.